Community Fridge

An estimated 15 million tonnes of food is wasted each year in the UK, enough to fill Wembley Stadium 18 times over. At the same time 4 million people live in food poverty in the UK. To tackle this issue in May 2016 Frome Town Council worked with Edventure and a team of volunteers to set up the UK’s first community fridge.

The fridge now shares around 5,000 ‘surplus’ items each month and in 2017 saved nearly 24 tonnes of food that would otherwise have been thrown away – equivalent in weight to around three African elephants. A community larder was launched in October 2018 to accommodate items that don’t need refrigeration. Take a look at the video below to find out more.

The Community Fridge and Larder are located in the Loop de Loop Gallery in the Cheese and Grain car park, it is open from 8am to 8pm every day. A dedicated team of volunteers collects the food from local shops and food outlets, and records the food in the Fridge’s log-book. The food is then available for anyone to take and make use of.

The success of the Fridge, which was the first to open in the UK, has helped to inspire more than 60 community fridges to open across the country – linked in with Hubbub’s Community Fridge network. It also featured on Jimmy and Jamie Oliver’s Saturday Night Food Feast in 2017.